Biscuits
by DragonE
Summary: Jill invites Eustace over for biscuits. Eustace is trying to hide something. Chaos ensues.


Eustace sat on the sofa, trying to look comfortable. It was all Jill's fault. It _had_ to be.

The trouble had all begun when she wired Eustace telling him that her mother had just baked biscuits and there was plenty to go around. Alberta did not approve of this, but after some persuading from Eustace, she agreed on the terms that Eustace should take his study book along. It was an extremely dull book, even for Eustace, and that is dull indeed.

And so here he was, biscuit in one hand and notebook in the other, with an impossibly thick study book on his lap. The book was so incredibly dull and grown-up (even for Eustace) that he couldn't help but get distracted by the smallest thing. And there was a very big thing to get distracted by in the room.

Eustace casually glanced over his book, and started. There was Jill, reading a book about…about _dragons_, no less! The boy-who-had-once-been-a-dragon blushed a little and lowered his head, concentrating on chewing his biscuit.

Jill, who was very absorbed in her book, noticed her friend's actions with the corner of her eye. "What's up, Scrubb?" she asked.

Eustace pretended to be very engaged in his book. "Oh, just reading." said he, in what he hoped was a nonchalant way.

Silence.

"What were dragons like, you know, in Narnia?" said Jill.

Eustace dropped his pencil in shock.

"What," he said, after he had regained his composure. "makes you think that I saw any?"

"Right when you first told me of Narnia, you mentioned dragons. 'Dragons and enchantments', you said. What were they like?"

Eustace picked his pencil off the floor. "Er, well, it's a rather long story, Pole." he was scrambling to find a way out of his predicament. "Well, you see, er, there was a dragon on my first trip to Narnia." Yes, that was it. Not a lie, but not exposing himself for what he was.

"Was it a nice dragon?" said Jill with an obvious look of concern on her face.

"Well, I suppose it was. It helped us when we were nearly shipwrecked."

"What did it look like?"

Eustace thought for a minute. Being the dragon himself, he couldn't see what it looked like very well, except when he flew over water, and he didn't like that very much. Fortunately, his cousin Lucy and a young sailor had both sketched pictures of him while he was in that state. He kept them in his room. So, he put pencil to notebook and started drawing himself.

Now, Eustace was not a real artist, but he was very good at drawing realistic, if not very imaginative pictures. On each page he drew lifelike representations of himself in every angle, front, back, left, right, and looking down on it. From the view that displayed the left side, Eustace drew the nasty armband and how it cut into his arm so.

Jill watched with fascination. "Oh," she said, pointing to the armband. "Is that what it was so nice for? That looks absolutely dreadful."

Despite Eustace's fears of being discovered, he couldn't help but wince and agree. "It was, let me tell you." said he, rubbing his left arm.

Jill looked at him as if she were trying to figure something out, then said, "Tell me the whole story."

Blimey! Now he was in for it! Eustace couldn't possibly tell the entire story without lying, or Jill figuring it out. The boy turned very red in the face, and Jill wondered if he was going to be sick.

"Now, Pole, well," he stammered, knowing one thing had to be done. "I hope you won't laugh at me, but…" he stopped, searching for the words. It was no use. Jill was a smart girl, and she had already picked up enough clues to get an idea.

"Go on," said Jill, ever patient.

"Er, well, you know how I said I had changed over the hols? And I had mentioned dragons and enchantments? Well," Jill nodded, indicating she hadn't lost focus. "I had…a queer adventure there…."

He paused, almost hoping now that Jill would catch on and end his misery.

Jill nodded, bit her lip, and looked as if she had guessed already, but wanted Eustace to just say it.

Eustace turned yet another shade of red. "Oh, _bother_ you, Jill! It's not that easy to say!"

Jill looked at Eustace. She looked at his notebook. She noticed the way he rubbed his arm.

Eustace's red face paled, seeing the light go on in his friend's head.

"Dragons and enchantments! I should say so!" Jill burst into laughter. "Of all the things you were trying to hide from me! Oh, Eustace! You got turned into a _dragon_!" She was laughing so hard now that Eustace didn't know if she was still breathing or not.

"Are- are you angry with me?"

"Angry? No! Why Eustace, if only you had just _said so_ in the first place, it wouldn't have been such a bother." she kept laughing. "But you getting enchanted isn't the funny thing, it's that you were _hiding it from me!"_

Needless to say, Eustace felt quite foolish.

Jill stopped laughing. "What was it like?"

He grimaced and rubbed his arm again. "Beastly."

Jill remembered the armband. "Oh." she said. "Yes, that must have been beastly."

They sat in silence for a while.

Eustace pulled up his left sleeve, exposing his forearm. There were scars, not very bad ones, etched on it like he had put an armband on that was far too tight and it was on for far too long.

"Oh…" said Jill, covering her mouth. "That's terrible."

"It's not so bad. When Aslan turned me back, all the damage was undone, but this," he touched the scar. "This is only skin deep. To remind me of what I was."

Jill smiled and sat back in her chair. "Will you tell me the whole story, please?"

And so, Eustace Clarence Scrubb who no longer deserved his name told his best friend, Jill Pole about his first adventures in Narnia.

And they did it over fresh biscuits.


End file.
